Things I learned from my failed attempt with the Deathknights
I played the Deathknights in game 5632. Let me correct that, I played the Deathknights poorly in game 5632. My hope is that my poor play can help other players do better.
One of the first things players may notice when playing the Deathknights is the Plague special ability. When I choose the DK as my kingdom, I misinterpreted this ability. The description clearly identifies that this effect will cause a plague like effect in any region where DK kingdom brigades end their turn. This effect will reduce the population of the region by 15%. The effect cannot be dispelled.
I wrongly surmised that a reduction in population would equate to a reduction in production. My thinking was that a town with 10k population could not produce the same as a town with 25k population. The plague would be an incredible weapon if it impacted production. I was wrong, this is a fantasy world and a reduction in population does not equate to a reduction in production.
When I sent DK brigades to my four neighbors’ regions, I achieved the population reduction, and I upset my neighbors, but that was all. I was not surprised when two of my neighbors took offense and invaded my starting region with large military groups. As I write this, I am still active in the game, but I won’t last for more than a few turns.
Now the part in which you are interested. What would I do differently?
KINGDOM OVERVIEW
The DK is a strong military kingdom with excellent magic and a set of special traits that all add up to an early aggressive military strategy.
DK brigades are good or above average in all phases of combat. The DK has a magic classification of Mastery. One step below the top rating of Supremacy.
The DK kingdom starts with the basic level of influence, 10. This can create a challenge when performing diplomatic actions early in the game and will restrict the number of early orders.
The DK starts with the basic number of agents.
PICKING YOUR REGION
I suggest you select a region that offers a military bonus, a bonus to influence, and is close to desert. Desert is needed to recruit Hell Hounds.
CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS
The DK will need to make an early military offensive, so selecting options that enhance your military is advisable.
EARLY STRATEGY
Back to the plague effect. If a single region is affected by the plague for an extended number of turns it will impact the ability to recruit from the regions pop centers. For example, a town that starts with a population of 35k will be reduced to a 13k population in seven turns. You cannot recruit from a pop center with less than 13k population.
This will impact different kingdoms differently. It will have no effect on the Dragon Kingdoms as they don’t recruit from pop centers. It will have negligible impact on kingdoms that mostly use companion or summoned brigades. It will have some impact on kingdoms that recruit from pop centers, including the DKs. For this reason, I suggest that you combine all your brigades and move them out of your starting region immediately.
Before regional and customization bonuses the DKs start with:
· 4 brigades of Deathknights
· 2 brigades of Hellhounds
· 1 brigade of War Machines
Adding one additional brigade through regional or customization bonuses will make the combined value of your brigades just under 30k, with leaders. At 30k your group can siege any town and might even be able to siege a small city.
Your military has many advantages.
· Your brigades will not lose morale from being in hostile regions. This is important because most regions will be hostile.
· Your brigades won’t feel the effects of Fear or Chaos.
· You can siege towns in two turns rather than the normal 3
· Your brigades are immune to death magic
· Your brigades have a 25% damage reduction from harmful magic
· Your brigades cause fear
· Hell-hound brigades breath fire which is the equivalent of a level 2 Firestrike. One Firestrike per group per battle.
· You start with a War Machine which is a great advantage against pop centers
· Troop maintenance is 25% less than other kingdoms
TURN ONE ORDERS
Move your wizards and leaders out of your first group into one of your inactive groups. You want to keep your troops in your first group for the 5% bonus. Also, any brigades you gain from customization will be added to your 1DK. Your wizards and leaders are going after the Morgal Blade.
If you can, move all your groups, that contain troops, out of your region to a location where the troops can combine into DK1. Use the resulting patrols to scout your region. Don’t worry about not having leaders in DK1. They will join your troops after collecting your artifact.
Train the Power 2 wizard and Power 1 wizard that you transferred out of DK1. This is important to your acquisition of the Morgal Blade and the power 3 wizard has some great spells in general.
With your low starting influence, you will need to promote your Duke to a Prince to take a major city. You might consider promoting your count to a duke.
Your king should increase influence and you can consider starting a standing order for your fool to entertain the court.
I suggest you sell your extra food
Submit your kingdom customization order
Final order suggestions – if you accepted my suggestions above you will have one order remaining. You could consider these actions, promote your level 3 agent to level 4, self teleport your Power 2 mage to the group with your primary leaders, use your power 2 wizard in 2dk for something, create gold, create food etc. If the funds are available you could use your special order to Muster the Fallen and add 2 brigades of Skeletons to your army.
TURN TWO ORDERS
Use your King to enamor your region.
Move your Prince and a Gov to your major city if you have one. Move lesser Emmys to any pop centers you may have found
Move your groups to combine with DK1, use your patrols to scout your starting region, use DK1 to scout for pop centers in the region you are invading.
Use your new power 3 mage to teleport your patrol to the location of the Morgal Blade.
If you have not done so already have the power 2 from DK2 self teleport to the patrol investigating the Morgal Blade.
You may need to move your miners to, or towards, a mithril deposit
Sell your extra food
Use your new level 4 agent if you promoted it last turn
You might have orders remaining, depending on the number of Emmie actions you needed. You could use the new power 2 mage, use the power 1 mage from your DK3, promote the adept in DK2, set your ESO
TURN THREE ORDERS
Set your ESO
Move your mithril miners if necessary
Use your king to raise your influence, you can consider making this a standing order.
Use your Emmys that moved to pop centers. If you moved a prince and governor to a major city, you could rebel the city by using the gov to stir unrest and the prince to rebel.
Continue your group actions
Investigate the unusual sighting using the two power 2 mages issuing guarded attack and the group investigating on a 3. I did not need to use my power 3 in the encounter.
Use your power 3 mage to teleport your patrol. Teleport to another artifact or to your DK1.
Move Emmys to newly discovered pop centers
Use your level 4 agent if you have one
I did not have enough orders to sell food. You might need to start saving food for the bad season depending on your region.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Note that your power 3 mage has the Windstorm spell. This is very handy against pop centers or enemy groups that rely on archers.
These orders for the first three turns should get you off to a good start. There are too many variables for me to offer additional suggestions.
Note that the suggested actions are what I will do in my next playthrough as the Deathknights. Experienced players may have a better plan.
I believe the Deathknights could compete for a podium spot if managed properly.
Good luck and have fun.
I played the Deathknights in game 5632. Let me correct that, I played the Deathknights poorly in game 5632. My hope is that my poor play can help other players do better.
One of the first things players may notice when playing the Deathknights is the Plague special ability. When I choose the DK as my kingdom, I misinterpreted this ability. The description clearly identifies that this effect will cause a plague like effect in any region where DK kingdom brigades end their turn. This effect will reduce the population of the region by 15%. The effect cannot be dispelled.
I wrongly surmised that a reduction in population would equate to a reduction in production. My thinking was that a town with 10k population could not produce the same as a town with 25k population. The plague would be an incredible weapon if it impacted production. I was wrong, this is a fantasy world and a reduction in population does not equate to a reduction in production.
When I sent DK brigades to my four neighbors’ regions, I achieved the population reduction, and I upset my neighbors, but that was all. I was not surprised when two of my neighbors took offense and invaded my starting region with large military groups. As I write this, I am still active in the game, but I won’t last for more than a few turns.
Now the part in which you are interested. What would I do differently?
KINGDOM OVERVIEW
The DK is a strong military kingdom with excellent magic and a set of special traits that all add up to an early aggressive military strategy.
DK brigades are good or above average in all phases of combat. The DK has a magic classification of Mastery. One step below the top rating of Supremacy.
The DK kingdom starts with the basic level of influence, 10. This can create a challenge when performing diplomatic actions early in the game and will restrict the number of early orders.
The DK starts with the basic number of agents.
PICKING YOUR REGION
I suggest you select a region that offers a military bonus, a bonus to influence, and is close to desert. Desert is needed to recruit Hell Hounds.
CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS
The DK will need to make an early military offensive, so selecting options that enhance your military is advisable.
EARLY STRATEGY
Back to the plague effect. If a single region is affected by the plague for an extended number of turns it will impact the ability to recruit from the regions pop centers. For example, a town that starts with a population of 35k will be reduced to a 13k population in seven turns. You cannot recruit from a pop center with less than 13k population.
This will impact different kingdoms differently. It will have no effect on the Dragon Kingdoms as they don’t recruit from pop centers. It will have negligible impact on kingdoms that mostly use companion or summoned brigades. It will have some impact on kingdoms that recruit from pop centers, including the DKs. For this reason, I suggest that you combine all your brigades and move them out of your starting region immediately.
Before regional and customization bonuses the DKs start with:
· 4 brigades of Deathknights
· 2 brigades of Hellhounds
· 1 brigade of War Machines
Adding one additional brigade through regional or customization bonuses will make the combined value of your brigades just under 30k, with leaders. At 30k your group can siege any town and might even be able to siege a small city.
Your military has many advantages.
· Your brigades will not lose morale from being in hostile regions. This is important because most regions will be hostile.
· Your brigades won’t feel the effects of Fear or Chaos.
· You can siege towns in two turns rather than the normal 3
· Your brigades are immune to death magic
· Your brigades have a 25% damage reduction from harmful magic
· Your brigades cause fear
· Hell-hound brigades breath fire which is the equivalent of a level 2 Firestrike. One Firestrike per group per battle.
· You start with a War Machine which is a great advantage against pop centers
· Troop maintenance is 25% less than other kingdoms
TURN ONE ORDERS
Move your wizards and leaders out of your first group into one of your inactive groups. You want to keep your troops in your first group for the 5% bonus. Also, any brigades you gain from customization will be added to your 1DK. Your wizards and leaders are going after the Morgal Blade.
If you can, move all your groups, that contain troops, out of your region to a location where the troops can combine into DK1. Use the resulting patrols to scout your region. Don’t worry about not having leaders in DK1. They will join your troops after collecting your artifact.
Train the Power 2 wizard and Power 1 wizard that you transferred out of DK1. This is important to your acquisition of the Morgal Blade and the power 3 wizard has some great spells in general.
With your low starting influence, you will need to promote your Duke to a Prince to take a major city. You might consider promoting your count to a duke.
Your king should increase influence and you can consider starting a standing order for your fool to entertain the court.
I suggest you sell your extra food
Submit your kingdom customization order
Final order suggestions – if you accepted my suggestions above you will have one order remaining. You could consider these actions, promote your level 3 agent to level 4, self teleport your Power 2 mage to the group with your primary leaders, use your power 2 wizard in 2dk for something, create gold, create food etc. If the funds are available you could use your special order to Muster the Fallen and add 2 brigades of Skeletons to your army.
TURN TWO ORDERS
Use your King to enamor your region.
Move your Prince and a Gov to your major city if you have one. Move lesser Emmys to any pop centers you may have found
Move your groups to combine with DK1, use your patrols to scout your starting region, use DK1 to scout for pop centers in the region you are invading.
Use your new power 3 mage to teleport your patrol to the location of the Morgal Blade.
If you have not done so already have the power 2 from DK2 self teleport to the patrol investigating the Morgal Blade.
You may need to move your miners to, or towards, a mithril deposit
Sell your extra food
Use your new level 4 agent if you promoted it last turn
You might have orders remaining, depending on the number of Emmie actions you needed. You could use the new power 2 mage, use the power 1 mage from your DK3, promote the adept in DK2, set your ESO
TURN THREE ORDERS
Set your ESO
Move your mithril miners if necessary
Use your king to raise your influence, you can consider making this a standing order.
Use your Emmys that moved to pop centers. If you moved a prince and governor to a major city, you could rebel the city by using the gov to stir unrest and the prince to rebel.
Continue your group actions
Investigate the unusual sighting using the two power 2 mages issuing guarded attack and the group investigating on a 3. I did not need to use my power 3 in the encounter.
Use your power 3 mage to teleport your patrol. Teleport to another artifact or to your DK1.
Move Emmys to newly discovered pop centers
Use your level 4 agent if you have one
I did not have enough orders to sell food. You might need to start saving food for the bad season depending on your region.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Note that your power 3 mage has the Windstorm spell. This is very handy against pop centers or enemy groups that rely on archers.
These orders for the first three turns should get you off to a good start. There are too many variables for me to offer additional suggestions.
Note that the suggested actions are what I will do in my next playthrough as the Deathknights. Experienced players may have a better plan.
I believe the Deathknights could compete for a podium spot if managed properly.
Good luck and have fun.